How to Pronounce Letter ‘f’

This pronunciation language lesson is designed for 3-6-year-old children to help them pronounce the letter f using its phonic sound.

Learning phonic sounds is important for children as this helps them read faster and more fluently. This is the first step in learning spelling and vocabulary.

In our previous video lesson, we learned about phonics, the importance of learning phonics, and the phonic sound of the letter e. This pronunciation video lesson is the 6th in a row of learning phonics. 

Why is it Important to Learn the Pronunciation Using Phonic Sounds?

The phonic sounds videos help the toddlers hear the sound and connect that sound with the alphabet. This helps the children to communicate smartly and with understanding.

The aim of making the toddlers understand phonics is to help them develop word recognition and spelling. This is developed when the children hear and identify the letter and phonemes properly. 

Further, this would help them understand the relationship between phonemes and graphemes.

What is the Sound of the Letter ‘f’?

The sound /f/ is made when your lower teeth lightly touch the upper lips and the stream of air is gently pushed through the opening of the mouth. Try making /ffffff/ sound. Or we can say, the /f/ creates the unvoiced sound /f/ that means the vocal cords do not pulsate while we try to sound the letter f. It is the counterpart of the letter v.

This sound is to be a continuous consonant, so it should be able to be said for a few seconds at a time with an even and smooth pronunciation. When making the /f/ sound, the lips are mostly relaxed.

 What are the Words that Start with the Letter f?

As shown in the video, the consonant f produces the short consonant sound of /f/ like we call out fish, frog, flower, and flip-flop, while helping children understand the sound as they speak.

Further, the letter f combines with the alphabet l or r to produce a blended sound of /f/l as in flop, flip, flag and a blended sound of /fr/ as in frog, fret, frame.

How to Introduce the Pronunciation of ‘f’ Sound to the Child?

1. Invite the child to the table and tell them, today we are going to learn the sound of the letter ‘f’ that produces.
2. Show the child what the letter ‘f’ looks like and the sound of the letter ‘f’.
3. Say it several times by producing the /f/ sound as demonstrated in the video.
4. Ask the child to repeat the sound after you.
5. Show the child a picture or miniature of words starting with ‘f’ such as frog.
6. Repeat the sound of the letter f every time while showing the image of the frog.
7. Now show another picture and again produce the letter ‘f’ sound.
8. Ask the child to pronounce the letter ‘f’.

Other Ways to Introduce the Phonic Sound of ‘f’ to the Child

Introducing some fun activities would help the toddlers understand the sounds quickly, such as:

1. Take them fishing and say, “Let us GO FISHING today”. Make some craft activities to help them understand how the letter ‘f’ looks and introduce them while reaching there.
2. Simple pictures can be drawn that begin with the alphabet f like fish, flowers, feathers, etc., and take them near a pond or a river. Ask them to find as many as possible.
3. Introducing the sound of the letter f using a frog jump game. Let the child pronounce /f/ each time they make a jump and hop like a frog.
4. You can also create a farm sensory tub wherein the children could learn and recognize the words with f and how it sounds.

 This video allows the child to explore the short consonant sound of the English letter ‘F’ and learn words starting with it

Watch the video to learn how the sounds of the letter ‘f’ are repeated for each word so that the child can hear and pronounce the words accurately.

  Related Pronunciation Videos:

1. Pronunciation of the letter ‘b’
2. Pronunciation of the letter ‘g’
3. Pronunciation of the letter ‘d’
4. Pronunciation of the letter ‘h’

 For more pronunciation and English language resources, click here. 

Video created by: Strykun Olena